China's largest lender, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd. (ICBC), opened its first village bank in eastern China's Zhejiang Province Sunday to improve rural financial services.

The Zhejiang Pinghu ICBC Village Bank will offer a wide range of financial services tailored to the needs of rural communities in a bid to boost rural economic growth, said ICBC vice president Yi Huiman at an opening ceremony.

ICBC holds a 60 percent stake of the village bank's 200-million-yuan (US$29.28 million) registered capital.

China's banking regulator, China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), lowered admittance standards for financial institutions to branch into rural China in 2006.

By June 2009, 708 townships across China did not have any financial services at all, according to CBRC.

CBRC said 118 new rural financial institutions, including 100 village banks, had been set up by the end of June 2009 and it planned to add 1,027 more village banks across the country from 2009 to 2011.

(Xinhua News Agency December 7, 2009)